Days 60-62, House-hunting International:)

Moving to a new country is no easy task.  I’ve spent a lot of time cleaning our house, getting rid of things we no longer use and preparing to put our house on the rental market.  Thanks to some great friends (Tamakia, Deanna, Jennifer, Alex, Sarah and Barbara), the house is finally ready to go and we can focus on next steps.  Another friend, Tanya, gave me the name of a property management company, who came out, assessed the property, determined the rental amount and is in the process of listing our property for  lease.  If you know of anyone who might be interested in a nice rental home for a year or two or three, please email me or forward them this link!!  Here are a few pictures of our house in Indiana!

Foyer

Family Room

Family Room

Dining Room

Office

Kitchen

Basement

Basement

Master Bedroom

After we had done all we could to prepare our home in the U.S., it was time to focus on a home in Belgium.    We didn’t want to go and choose a house too soon because, of course, we had to make it through the mounds of paperwork, first.   The process is quite involved,  First, we have to get FBI clearance, which could take weeks, then a work permit and finally a Visa.  We are hoping to be completely settled in, some time in November.

Now comes the hunt for housing!  The real estate agent prepared us that things in America tend to be bigger than those in Europe.  I remembered from my time living in Barcelona in college that apartments were smaller, cars were smaller, etc.  My husband and I talked to the girls about what makes a house a home, not the size or the location, but the people in it...the warmth and the love that a family shares...  We all were excited and open-minded about the housing possibilities in Belgium.

We weren’t disappointed.  Since we are moving just on the outskirts of Brussels, we quickly found that we could get a little more house for our budget than if we had decided to live in Brussels itself.  The houses were nice and spacious.  Here are a few….

 We made a list of things that were important and tried our best to stick to it.  Here’s our list.

1.     Large fenced in yard(or garden:), as it is more commonly called in Belgium)  Our dog loves to run off.  Since he’ll be going with us, it is VERY, VERY important that the yard is enclosed.

2.     Separate bedrooms for all three girls since neither of our girls are close in age.

3.     Separate bath for us and the girls.  There’s no way my husband would share a bath with the girls…who could blame him?

4.     Yard service-we rarely have time to do yard work and prefer that it’s included in the price.

5.     A dedicated “art room” with art-friendly floors.  My girls love to paint and they need a room, where they can be creative and where we can easily clean the floors.

6.     Preferably hard-wood floors, but not mandatory.

That’s it!  That’s what we wanted and I think we found just the house.  Say a prayer for us, as we wait to hear whether we got the house.  Stay tuned for good news about the house and some cool pics!  (Crossing my fingers:)

Looking forward to the weekend!